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DEEPAK PATIL: MAKING BOTH ENDS MEET, WITH CANDLES

The others around him stopped what they were doing and stared blankly at him.

âKya hua?â Deepak asked, this time smiling nervously.

Luckily it turned out to be a false alarm and Deepakâs heart is in perfectly good condition. The doctor told him that he was experiencing pain near his chest mainly because of âgasâ, and asked him to take regular walks and avoid spicy food. He had not realized it himself, but Deepakâs level of physical activity had gone down drastically over the last few months.

SELF LEARNER

Flashback to 2003. As a carefree lanky 18 year old Deepak had found employment in a contracting firm as a peon, near his home in Jogeshwari. The second son of a Maharastrian father and Gujarati mother, Deepak has always has had an eye for detail and a sense of closure for everything that he does. He was diligent and always very good at completing tasks. He did very well in his job, and as he was very trustworthy, his employer, an honest man himself, entrusted him with matter which required diligence. Over the years, Deepak took the initiative and taught himself design programs on an office computer, supervised construction sites and was also seen as the most trustworthy person in the office, especially when it came to money matters.

CANDLE MAKING

Deepak has always had a creative side to him and during times when the work pressure from projects were low, Deepak would spend time experimenting with DIY decor products. Â In his experimentation, he found a calling in candles; something that he first picked up online and later perfected on his own. Â Deepak turned to candle making in his spare time and on weekends, and supplemented his income. Â Now, making both ends meet has a rather different meaning for Deepak.

A set of green polka dotted candles

âLog candle khareedte hain, par jalate nahin.â

That is when we realized that he makes such unique and beautiful candles, that people buy them and just keep them in their showcases. The two ends of the candle does not meet! When buyers do not light the candles, Deepak does not get repeat orders.

Deepak has always had an eye for detail and an inclination towards the fine arts. If his father had the money when he was growing up, he would have become an Architect or an Artist. Unfortunately his

Love candles

father passed away when he was young, and Deepak along with his brother had to give up schooling and take responsibility of running the house. While being employed at the contracting firm, he would experiment with little crafts once in a while, and his creations would often become Diwali gifts given by the firm to its clients. To encourage him to pursue his hobbies, Deepak, during one Diwali, was gifted a complete candle making kit by his employerâs wife. He is now using this kit to churn out one beauty after other.

So when we asked him where does he get the ideas from, he quickly responds:

Word of mouth has helped, and so has WatsApp. He takes pictures of his candles, sends them through WatsApp to his earlier colleagues in the firm, who mostly through their network and their wivesâ network pass it on. The number of orders are slowly increasing day by day, but his challenge is in getting people to burn the candles.

His concern has been that if his candles look good, people like to keep them and not light them; so he does not get repeat orders. We asked him to continue. On the candle buyerâs side we realised that there are quite a lot of people who loved to light candles, but do not know where they would get good candles. So we embarked on a mission to help Deepakâs candle reach out to the masses through our online platform. We got his candles photographed, helped with a bit of branding and have put them up for sale online. You can view his latest creations at http://www.jaluk.com/product-category/decor/candles/ .

You can even order online now and have them home delivered.

CHRISTMAS SPECIAL

In line with his eye for detail, Deepak also does beautiful and special

A special gel candle with beads and bells for Christmas

gift wrapping for candles. He says he can do bulk as well. He has come up with a few pieces especially for Christmas and promises to come up with something special for every festival.